Word Place will be located between Marketplace Avenue and North Burleson Street adjacent to I-35 with two creeks running through it.
The development agreement also establishes a public improvement district with a tax increment reinvestment zone. The former will be used to finance extra infrastructure and improvements, and the latter will be used to buy down the public improvement district's cost.
Jeff Barton, Word Place Properties managing partner and co-founder of GAP Strategies, emphasized the development has been a long time coming.
“We're really excited about the partnership with the city and the community,” Barton told Community Impact.
The details
The project will be developed on the Barton family land, which was originally purchased in the 1940s and is described as a “legacy project” due to Barton's family history. His grandmother founded the city's first public library, and his grandfather opened a general store where City Hall is now located. The city also named its Lifetime Citizen Achievement Award after Barton's father for his work in civil rights.
According to agenda documents, there will be two multiuse buildings, The Three Sisters and The Lex & The Louise—named after Barton's grandparents—which will have a cafe, retail and restaurants.
There are also plans to establish a 13-acre city park with amenities including a fitness court, a playscape, interpretive nature trails, way-finding signage and trailhead parking. The park designation was approved by the Kyle Parks and Recreation Board in November 2021. Word Place will have trails that connect to the city's Vybe Trail, an 80-mile paved path that aims to connect all Kyle neighborhoods to different areas of the city.
What the dais is saying
Mayor Travis Mitchell commended the Word Place project, emphasizing there is a difference between legacy landowners that partner with developers who are a part of that legacy vision and landowners wanting to sell their land and leave.
“What we often see happen in the city of Kyle is legacy landowners wanting to sell their land, move out of town, while speculators come in from outside and try to figure out how they can make the most possible money. It is very clear to me that you are not that. It's not just about the legacy; it's about your actions as it relates to this particular project,” Mitchell said.
Council Member Miguel Zuniga thanked Barton for the project.
“Thank you very much for the conservation, for the proactiveness, and for the connectivity between east and west that you want to bring with this development; it's really great,” Zuniga said.
